Book Review: Free-Range Kids

The premise of this book is that as a society, we have become too over-protective over our children and not allowing them to do normal things kids can do.

I would recommend reading this book to all parents. It is one of those books that causes a lot of self-reflection and reevaluation of yourself and how you parent. It really made me think about the rules we have and what we might want to change.

I do not agree with everything in the book. It is a light read and easy to get through, but she tends to be pretty critical (or mocking) of parents who choose to do things differently than she sees as the "common sense" way of approaching things, and I do not like that. I think her points could be made without that aspect. The earlier chapters are thicker with that feeling against other parents, then she backs off as the book progresses, so trudge through that aspect (if it bothers you).

Like I said, it is a book that gets you thinking and is absolutely worth your time to read. I think a book that causes parents to be introspective and more deliberate in their choices is always worth the time it takes to read it. That is what makes us better parents, even if we don't agree with everything we read to get there.

4 comments

How interesting you reviewed this book! I just finished it a few weeks ago. You can tell the author has an agenda, so I personally took her arguments with a grain of salt. But it was extremely valuable for me to read as a sometimes over-anxious mother. Having a little more confidence and optimism as a mother is good for kids, I think. And she doesn't advise people to just let their kids go and do whatever. Many of her suggestions are quite reasonable and usually still include parental supervision at some level.

Thanks for the recommendation. I just finished it and felt like it was a breath of fresh air from all the over protective advice you read in magazines, etc that usually rubs me the wrong way. Anyway, I wouldn't have picked it up otherwise. Keep 'em coming!